L.A. is a great place to live, but to visit? It’s complicated. You have to navigate a vast expanse of land clogged by standstill traffic, through neighborhoods that can make it seem like you’re hopping from one universe to another. Just think of all you could fit in a single day. We've narrowed it down to the city’s best museums and hiking trails and cemeteries, a weird sculpture in Watts, and even the best place in the world to see magic shows. Read on for our picks for the best things to do when you're visiting the City of Angels.

Labyrinthine and extensive, LACMA is one of the more comprehensive art museums in the world. The campus is huge, so expect to walk, a lot. There are galleries for permanent collections on art from North America, Korea, Japan, Latin America, the Islamic world, and Europe, one of which includes paintings from masters like Matisse, Magritte, Picasso, and Rembrandt. It's also known for its visiting exhibitions of blockbuster shows.

No matter what you think of Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the best place to see classical music on the West Coast. In the same building is the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT), which is as entrenched in the L.A. cultural scene as the Phil. Host to experimental theater, edgy performance art, and film screenings year round, REDCAT is an underrated spot to catch cutting-edge live art.

The La Brea Tar Pits are pits of, well, tar that have been bubbling up from beneath the earth for tens of thousands of years. The pits are viewable for free, and the compact La Brea Tar Pits Museum exhibits fossils and bones that were preserved when animals would become trapped in said tar. It's a major landmark, and one of the most visited tourist spots in all of Los Angeles.

Built in 1934 as an actual farmers' market, the Original Farmers Market is now an old-timey cluster of boutiques, grocers, repair shops, and food stalls. The look hasn't changed much since the 1930s; the façade still resembles a village of cottages from the outside. Meanwhile, the Grove, an ultramodern outdoor mall, is right next door. This is both a tourist hotspot and a local fave: Nearby residents know it's a great spot for groceries (Huntington Meats and Sausage, Tusquellas Seafood), and has one of the area's best cobblers (Farmers Market Shoe Repair), while visitors might be more interested in the Taschen bookstore or the Magic Nut and Candy Company.

Where the city's other museums often play out like indie theaters or revival cinemas, the Broad is the megaplex that shows only tentpole action features. That has made it one of the hottest tickets in town, since it opened in late 2015. Lines are often out the door. The building, by star firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, sticks out in Downtown Los Angeles for its resemblance to a cheese grater (some say it looks like a Bose speaker).

Hidden in plain sight, the canals flow behind the adorable Venice bungalows just blocks from the beach. Built in 1905 by developer Abbot Kinney, it’s not unusual to see herons, egrets, pelicans, and parrots, making it one of the best off-the-beaten-path landmarks in all of L.A. There are a number of bridges perfect for romantic photo ops, and there are enough quiet corners to find your own little patch of bliss. It’s a perfect place to stroll and catch your breath amid the hustle and bustle of the city.

Home to the graves of silent film stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino, you'll also find the tombs of modern celebrities like Johnny Ramone and Kim Fowley. During the summer, the cemetery holds film screenings on its front lawn, and cool Angelenos know that the Masonic Lodge is one of the best music venues in town. Try and find the memorial to Toto, Dorothy's dog in The Wizard of Oz. There's also a section of the cemetery where peacocks roam.

Somehow both space-age and D.I.Y., Watts Towers are an awe-inspiring series of 17 interwoven sculptural pillars built from scrap metal and concrete and decorated with found objects like glass bottles, volcanic rock, and ceramic tile. Italian immigrant construction worker and artist Sabato "Simon" Rodia built them over a 33-year period, from the 1920s through the 1950s. They're considered a prime example of "outsider art," and can be visited for free in the Simon Rodia Historic State Park in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Quiet, big, secluded, and full of art galleries, historic buildings, and a theater, the Barnsdall Art Park is one of L.A.'s best-kept secrets. Start with the Hollyhock House, the first Frank Lloyd Wright project built in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG) and the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, built in the mid-century, play host to excellent exhibitions of contemporary art, plays, and panel discussions.

With over 1,000 square miles of wilderness and 53 trailheads, it's no wonder Angeles National Forest is one of the most popular day trips for locals. Whether you're hiking, biking, running, boating, or even skiing, there's something for every outdoors-y type here. The drive up Mt. Baldy is pleasant and results in spectacular views from nearly 10,000 feet. The hikes to the Devil's Punchbowl and the Bridge to Nowhere are some of the best day hikes in the region.

Three museums in one, really, MOCA is a cutting-edge museum with temporary exhibitions by established and emerging artists; it's one of the greatest contemporary art collections in the world. The 6,000-piece collection contains prime works by Agnes Martin, Nam June Paik, Jackson Pollock, and Mike Kelley. The docents at MOCA are top-notch, and tours come free with the $15 admission charge (the Pacific Design Center location is free, but doesn't offer tours).

The Hollywood Bowl is one of Los Angeles's best summertime evenings out. Opened in 1922, the outdoor amphitheater is an Angeleno institution: grand in scale and glitzy enough to attract the city's elite. The band shell's distinctive shape creates an acoustically magnificent experience to boot. It's not the only place to see the world-class Los Angeles Philharmonic (there's the Walt Disney Concert Hall, too), but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to have a picnic and a glass of wine in a box seat while hearing them.

Griffith Observatory is an Art Deco stargazing spot atop Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It's one of the most visited observatories in the world for a reason, with exhibit halls (one of which houses a rare, electricity-pulsing Tesla coil), photogenic views of the Hollywood sign, a planetarium that hosts brainy but fun shows about the universe, and, of course, the 12-inch Zeiss telescope. More than 600 guests look through that telescope each night, which the observatory claims makes it the highest trafficked telescope in the world.

As the best place to get close-up photos of the Hollywood sign, this park is a major tourist attraction. It's also a dog-friendly, so between the frisbee and the ball-toss games, it can seem like there are as many canines as people. There are two notable hiking paths: one that takes you around the reservoir and one that takes you up to the Hollywood sign.

There are few places in the world quite like the Magic Castle. This mansion in Hollywood serves as a clubhouse for magicians, with illusionists, mentalists, and more performing nightly to a crowd required to dress in vintage formal attire. At a small magic club's show, you may see few magicians in the course of an evening, but at the Magic Castle you could see a dozen shows in a night. You have to be invited by a magician to get in but there’s a secret tip: Find out which magicians are performing the night you’d like to see, and email them a few weeks in advance to see if they’ll get you an invite.

The Rose Bowl Flea Market, held on the second Sunday of each month, is the flea market to end all flea markets. More than 20,000 shoppers visit more than 2,500 vendors selling hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of things on the grounds of the Rose Bowl each month. Whether you're looking for hard-to-find vintage T-shirts, mid-century-modern furniture, tools, vinyl records, or simply antique treasures of all types, there's something for everyone. Just remember to haggle: Don't pay the first price for anything, and never, ever let the dealer know you need what you're trying to get.

Even if you have only a nascent interest in film, you've probably seen a movie shot on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot. While tours are the highlight of the visit, it's also home to a flagship theme park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the Universal CityWalk—home to an IMAX theater, a variety of shops and restaurants, and even a handful of hotels.

The perfect mix of informal and ultra-pro, the tours are led by Laura Massino Smith, a historian specializing in L.A.'s architectural marvels. The tours are small—only five people can fit comfortably into the luxury van—which makes it intimate, but it also means reservations are a necessity. Each tour takes about three hours, and you're limited to one neighborhood per tour. Silver Lake and Hollywood are highlights, but there are separate tours for Beverly Hills, Downtown, Pasadena, and more.

The Victorian-style atrium of the Bradbury Building, built for gold baron Lewis Bradbury, is filled with architectural flourishes like open-cage hydraulic elevators, marble staircases, and wrought-iron balconies. The massive skylight and the open balconies create a mood that is like no other building; it's both haunting and magical. Culture buffs will know it from appearances in movies like Chinatown (1974), Blade Runner (1982), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and a smattering of music videos and commercials.

A cluster of beige travertine buildings set atop a hill on the West Side, the Getty Center is one of the most prestigious art institutions in the world. There's always an enriching exhibition or five happening at the Getty, whether it focuses on contemporary art, photography, or classical painting. There are a number of fruitful tours, all of them free. Spend an entire day marveling at the art, relaxing in the garden (which, with a floating labyrinth and more than 500 plant species, has been called a "living sculpture), and enjoying the hilltop views.